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Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Lavender Macarons

My first tell-tale signs that Spring is approaching... is when my lavender bushes starts to flower as soon as the weather warms up. I am so thrilled to spot the tiny purplish buds hiding within the greyish green leaves...

Spring has always been my favourite season... I love waking up to sounds of birds chirping... then having a walk round the garden to admire and breathe in the fragrance of the early Lavender bloomers...

Everything comes to life...

New Beginning

Spring... reminded me of a friendship between 2 teenage girls that lived in 2 different parts of the world. One in Canada and the other in Malaysia. They would write to each other, exchanged cards and photos. Good old days...the art of communication...using pens, papers, envelopes and stamps ... and oh!!! and Mr Postman too ...

They were "Penpals" for years until one left to UK to pursue her dreams... she lost contact with her Canadian penpal ...

Then one day, she received a message in her Facebook message box...

Are you the same person, who I was a penpal with in the 1970’s and 1980’s? I lived in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada and the girl I correspond with was from Malaysia?

The Canadian Penpal was cleaning out her stuff and stumbled upon a box from her teenage years... and found a letter from her Malaysian penpal... she still remembers her Malaysian friend!!! ....

Thank you Cheryl J ... for keeping my letters and keeping in touch again. A toast to our 'Friendship'... with a bite of Lavender Macarons...

I am using the Swiss Method to make these gorgeous Lavender Macarons.

Recipe(Love Food cookbook)

80g egg whites

65g lavender sugar

80g almond meal

140g icing sugar

1/2 teaspoon lemon juice

food colouring

dried lavender seeds

Filling

115g soft Philadelphia cream cheese

2 tablespoon lavender sugar

to make lavender sugar

1 cup of caster sugar

2 tablespoon of edible lavender
muslin cloth

Preparation

~ 2 weeks ahead ~ wrap lavender in muslin cloth, secure with kitchen string. Pour caster sugar in an airtight container, and place the lavender sachet in the container. Give it a good shake everyday.

~ 3 days before making macarons ~ separate egg white from yolk. Refrigerate.

Making Macarons

Egg white at room temperature

Pulse Almond meal with icicng sugar for 5 minutes. Sieve. Set aside.

Mix the egg white and castor sugar in a heatproof bowl.

Making sure that the bowl will snuggly fit the pot, bring the water to boil then lower the heat to a gentle simmer.

Place the bowl on top of the pot, making sure the bottom of the bowl does not touch the simmering water... aka double boil method.

Whisk the egg white mixture until the sugar is dissolved and the temperature reads50-55C on the sugar thermometer.

Transfer the egg mixture into the mixing bowl with the balloon attachment.

Add lemon juice.

Whisk on medium speed until soft peak or 'shaving foam' consistency.

Add in food colouring.

Using a flexible silicon spatula, fold in sieved almond into the meringue one third at a time. And start counting the strokes.

Continue to fold until all dry ingredients are fully incorporated and it forms a shiny batter with a thick, ribbon like consistency...

Facebook is amazing tool to reconnect with old friends and I love that part. Who knew we find each other again like this. I'm happy you found friendship again!

Lisa, your pictures (all of them) blew me away. Seriously. So beautiful that I couldn't breathe properly. I think you will be a great professional photographer (not just food blogger) soon. I know it. I can see it!!!! Your macarons look so pretty. Whole food photography is amazing!

Aww such a sweet story. Penpals- wow that concept has just disappeared. I just tweeted about how I suddenly discovered that writing actual words with pen and paper has turned into a labour intensive activity.

O yes... I used to have loads of penpals in the day! I would drive my mum crazy as the first thing I would ask when coming home from school is if there was any mail for me.. lol.. good old days indeed. Your lavender macarons are just beautiful!

Lisa, again what a wonderful post with superb photography. I can never seem to capture quality photos (making a note to attend the next photography course). Would love if you could post some over here. You're amazingly talented.

Hi thereYour macaroons look gorgeous - as a lavender grower I just have one concern - I hope you didn't use the lavender that you have in the photographs ): It is variously called French, Spanish ot Italian - correct name Stoechas (pronounced steekas). The variety to use in cooking is angustifolia varieties - like Hidcote or Munstead. If you uses the photographed variety it wouldn't kill you, but if you used the correct variety it would taste much nicer (:Ann

Hi Lisa,So happy to find a lavender macaron recipe, but the one that you have listed out talks about including green tea powder and not where to add in the lavender seeds. Two things... what are lavender seeds?? and should I just substitute them and put the lavender at that stage?Any advice would be greatly appreicated :) Emma.

Hi Emma, I am such a noob, did not notice the typo. Thank you for pointing out. I will delete green tea powder asap (it was for green tea macarons). I use the lavender sugar n mix it in with the egg white over double boiler. Edible Lavender seeds can be purchase from shops that sells baking stuffs.